< 13 >
Whenever that day came to mind, an intense wave of depression crashed over him so fiercely that he wanted to split his head open with an axe.
He didn’t want to open his eyes again.
He wanted to be buried side by side with Rose right then and there.
He missed Rose, and everything had lost meaning.
Even the slender thread of responsibility could not overcome the emptiness of that moment.
Thus, instead of floundering in overflowing despair, what Seymour chose was to bury himself in fatigue and the haze of alcohol.
Yet perhaps because the child’s voice interrupted his thoughts, or perhaps because he wasn’t alone in the room today.
No thoughts came to him at all.
Thanks to that, the constant headache that had always pressed down on his head had faded away before he knew it.
It was proof that even this small amount of rest helped alleviate his condition.
‘I suppose I really do need to rest properly.’
No wonder Hugo’s nagging had been increasing day by day.
Whatever the reason, it was a change he would never have felt without Rowena.
‘I should at least thank her.’
Once the child finishes reading the book, I’ll put her to bed…
Crackle.
‘Hm?’
Seymour’s eyebrow twitched.
Only the child’s clear voice should have been heard, but something strange seemed mixed in.
Was it his imagination? No.
This was…
“So the princess, nom nom, bit into the poisoned apple, slurp slurp, no, bit into it.”
Gulp.
The loud sound of a swallowing throat rang out.
At this point, even Seymour could no longer pretend not to notice.
That was the sound of eating cookies.
“…Where did you get those cookies?”
“Hehe, actually, I was a little hungry.”
Rowena peeked only her eyes out from behind the bookshelf, smiled sheepishly, and cautiously held something out.
A cookie broken in half.
“I saved it from when we had tea earlier… Would you like some too, Duke?”
I especially cut the part with the chocolate chips.
She whispered as if offering an enormous bribe, and Seymour squeezed his eyes shut.
“You eat it…”
“Hehe! It’s okay if you don’t want any.”
Even though she said that, the cookie piece swiftly disappeared into Rowena’s mouth.
At that sight, Seymour suddenly recalled one of Freya’s words.
‘You should try raising a child who looks just like you later. Then you’ll understand how much I’ve suffered!’
No, Mother-in-law.
I think I already understand, even without raising a child who looks like me.
Common sense doesn’t work here, so I have no confidence in dealing with it.
Beside Seymour, who had closed his eyes, the sound of cookie-eating stopped, and the reading voice resumed.
And so the night passed, and the next morning arrived.
Heather, a maid of the Somerset ducal residence, sighed as she opened the door to the Duke’s bedroom.
‘There are probably liquor bottles rolling around again.’
Ever since Madam passed away, whenever the master slept in the mansion, the scene was always more or less the same, so today would likely be no different.
Thus, Heather’s task was to bring wash water and towels, and collect the empty bottles.
‘It would be nice if he refrained from drinking a little, since the young miss is here. If his health suffers at this rate…’
As she opened the door out of habit while worrying, an unexpected sight unfolded before her.
A small smile unconsciously bloomed on Heather’s lips at the sight.
“Oh my.”
Instead of the expected liquor bottles, fairy tale books were scattered across the floor.
And on the bed, two people were asleep.
Seymour, frowning slightly as if having a nightmare, and one child sprawled over him as though pressing him down in sleep.
It was the historic morning when Rowena succeeded in putting the Duke to sleep.
* * *
Hehe.
I put the Duke to sleep!
Right now, Rowena’s shoulders were soaring toward the sky.
Especially because of the intense reactions from Seymour and Hugo when they woke up in the morning.
“…What time is it right now? Why is the sun up… Did I actually fall asleep?”
Seymour wore an expression as if the world had turned upside down,
“Am… Am I seeing things…?”
Hugo was so overwhelmed with emotion that tears even welled in his eyes.
“How long has it been since I last saw His Grace sleep without drinking… This is all thanks to the young miss!”
Hugo showered Rowena with endless praise as if he wanted to brag to the whole neighborhood.
If decorum allowed, Hugo probably would have carried Rowena around on his shoulders.
But while Hugo seemed ready to declare today a commemorative day for the Somerset ducal residence, Seymour’s situation was rather dire.
“To sleep until this hour… Why didn’t anyone wake me… Where has my mind gone…”
Seymour, utterly shocked by the fact that he had lost consciousness and slept — and that he hadn’t woken even though the sun was high in the sky — it was already breakfast time — hurriedly left for work.
Meanwhile, the left-behind Rowena ate breakfast heartily.
In the bedroom, no less!
Airi, with an angelic face, smiled brightly as she brought a tray of freshly baked bread and warm milk.
“You didn’t sleep much last night, did you? Since you must be tired, you can have breakfast in the bedroom today.”
“Wow! Is that really okay, Airi?”
“Of course.”
According to Airi, nobles other than the Duke sometimes slept in late and even had meals in bed.
While Rowena piled generous amounts of orange marmalade and butter onto the bread, Airi gently brushed her hair and said,
“You have no idea how startled I was when I saw the note you left. If it hadn’t been there, I would have turned the entire ducal residence upside down.”
“Really?”
“Yes. If the young miss had disappeared, it would have been a huge problem.”
Before leaving the bedroom, Rowena had placed a note on the pillow.
[Going to the Duke.]
She had worried whether the spelling was correct, but it seemed she had written it properly.
I really am smart!
Rowena’s proud shoulders rose even higher.
“…But young miss, were you very hungry?”
“No? ”
Rowena opened her eyes wide as if asking why.
Though her pronunciation was all mushy, that didn’t matter right now.
This was a very important moment.
The moment of the “eat an entire slice of bread in one bite” challenge!
“You could eat slowly.”
“I wanted to try it.”
This was quite an important matter.
At Townsend, one slice of bread was usually the portion for an entire meal.
Which meant it was possible for a tragedy to occur where someone ate an entire meal in one bite!
Children who were either too brave to value their meals properly, or who wanted to prove their courage by showing off the size of their mouths, sometimes boldly attempted to eat a whole slice of bread in one go.
But Rowena knew well how much those children suffered from hunger afterward.
When you’re hungry, tears come. She didn’t like that.
‘But here, there’s lots of bread!’
There were already three slices of bread on the tray Airi had brought.
So one slice should be okay to eat in one bite.
She folded the bread — generously topped with orange marmalade and butter — in half and stuffed it firmly into her mouth.
Her already plump cheeks puffed out even more.
And finally…!
“Oh my…!”
“The young miss put an entire slice of bread in her mouth?”
“Goodness, she looks like a squirrel. So cute!”
The maids gathered around the table and made a fuss.
Amid the cheers, Rowena — with her mouth completely stuffed with bread — smiled contentedly.
“Hmmph.”
I’m brave.
But… how do I chew this?
I only thought about putting it in, not about chewing it.
“Eung.”
While Rowena struggled to move her mouth and chew, a knock sounded, and Hugo opened the door.
He had clearly entered with a rather serious expression, but the moment he opened the door, his face melted into the same gooey expression as the maids’.
“You were in the middle of a meal, young miss. Pardon the interruption. I have something to inform you.”
“What is it, Sir Hugo?”
At Airi’s question, Hugo held out a single letter.
“Madam Hayworth has announced that she will visit the Somerset ducal residence today.”
It was a letter bearing the seal of Hayworth.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
